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				<li class="cushycms"><h2>Latest News</h2>
<h5><strong>Media Release &ndash; May 2009<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;"><strong>Slain Policeman - NZ Grieves Online</strong><br />
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<div style="text-align: left;">When Senior Constable Len Snee (53) was shot dead in Napier on Thursday 7th May 2009, he was New Zealand&rsquo;s 29th police officer to die on duty in more than 120 years.<br />
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<div style="text-align: left;">&ldquo;Often it is a time like this that that the community pulls together in shared sorrow and in remembrance of the people that put themselves out there to protect us,&rdquo; said Sue Skeet, managing director of www.amemorytree.co.nz, NZ&rsquo;s largest online remembrance book service.<br />
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Within hours of Len&rsquo;s Remembrance Page opening on the website  hundreds of  people had visited leaving messages, lighting candles and refreshing flowers, she said.<br />
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&ldquo;Len&rsquo;s death comes at a great cost to everyone, none so more as his family. It also deeply affects the wider community. And despite the many changes in our society, people are fundamentally holding onto traditional values and care and support each other in times of loss. It just may done a little differently these days by going online.<br />
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&ldquo;A Memory Tree has a core objective which is to help people communicate, share and support each other,&rdquo; she concluded.<br />
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The website hosts over 67,000 Remembrance Pages. It launched in January 2009 and Skeet says it records over 98% of all the deaths in New Zealand. Death records go back to December 2006.<strong><br />
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Media Release - May 2009</strong></h5>
<div style="text-align: center;"><strong>Mother&rsquo;s Day 101 Years Old &ndash; Would Anna Approve?<br />
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Mother&rsquo;s Day as we know it celebrates its 101st year this Sunday, and with it generations of mothers past and present are recognised for their positive contribution to society. <br />
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It  began in 1905 when American Anna Jarvis swore at her mother&rsquo;s graveside to dedicate her life to establish a Mother&rsquo;s day to honour mothers, living and dead.  Would Anna approve of how Mother&rsquo;s Day is celebrated in today&rsquo;s society?<br />
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She  campaigned for three years to have the day recognised, with the St Andrew&rsquo;s Church in Grafton, West Virginia holding the first ever Sunday Service to honour mothers on the 10th May 1908. By 1914 an official Mother&rsquo;s Day was adopted to emphasise women&rsquo;s role in the family.<br />
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&ldquo;It is rumored that Anna had argued with her mother before she had died and they never got to make peace with each other.<br />
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&ldquo;In the years that followed she became increasingly concerned over the commercialisation of Mother&rsquo;s Day and is quoted as saying &lsquo;I want a day of sentiment not profit&rsquo;,&rdquo; said Sue Skeet, managing director of www.amemorytree.co.nz.<br />
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Ms Skeet says  remembering our mothers after they pass on is just as important as acknowledging those that are nurturing their children today.<br />
&ldquo;Our mothers and grandmothers that have died hold a special place in our history.  Acknowledging them, sometimes making peace with them if need be, doesn&rsquo;t  need to come at a commercial price.<br />
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&ldquo;We have opened a Remembrance Page in memory of Mother&rsquo;s Day at www.amemorytree.co.nz and invite the children and grandchildren to leave memories there for free,&rdquo; said Ms Skeet.<br />
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A Memory Tree is New Zealand&rsquo;s largest Remembrance website and has over 67,000 Remembrance Pages open. The site was launched in February 2009 after several years in research &amp; development.<br />
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So what happened to Anna?  <br />
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In 1948 she died having never had children of her own. She was blind and penniless and buried next to her mother in a cemetery in Philadelphia.<br />
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&ldquo;Mums have a tough job and saying thanks isn&rsquo;t always easy. We offer our Mother&rsquo;s Day Page to the community in hope that others will benefit from remembering and cherishing their memories&rsquo;&rdquo; added Ms Skeet.<strong><br />
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<h5><strong>2009 - January&nbsp;- Media Release&nbsp;&nbsp; <br />
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<div style="text-align: center;"><strong>New Look at a Dying Tradition</strong></div>
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The launch of the website, A Memory Tree.co.nz, this&nbsp;month has put a new spin on a dying tradition by providing users the opportunity to search 98% of NZ deaths on-line and leave a condolence message for each and every one of them.<br />
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The site records and stores all death notices from 27 of New Zealand's leading newspapers and provides Remembrance Pages for each person listed. Newspapers are searchable within days of publication.<br />
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Collection of records began in December 2006 and currently over 60,000 individuals and thousands of death notices are searchable.<br />
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Founder and managing director of the unique website, Sue Skeet, said A Memory Tree has provided a solution for a growing problem.<br />
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&quot;Today's families are splintered, the traditional nuclear family is no longer a society norm, many feel a sense of disconnection, and we've come up with a modern solution to a growing problem.<br />
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&ldquo;There's so much loss in our world today, and&nbsp;it&rsquo;s vitally important for family, friends and the community to start supporting each other. A Memory Tree offers a place to validate the memories, relationships and important people in our lives. It's a place to celebrate, grieve, remember and cherish events.<br />
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&ldquo;Information held in newspaper notices also offers our users a powerful tool to start searching for related friends and family of the deceased. It gives them a great starting point for any search,&rsquo; she added<br />
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The Remembrance Page feature offers the opportunity to leave messages,&nbsp;refresh virtual flowers and light virtual candles, link to grief support providers, send a gift and make travel arrangements.<br />
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Links to charities and funeral homes, and information on cultural protocols are some of the other features.<br />
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Unlike traditional off-line notices, Remembrance Pages are free to leave messages for the first 14 days. They can then be reopened through a single sponsorship. Sponsorship fees start at $19.90 for one month, to $99.90 for 13 months. Sponsored pages are then active again for unlimited free messages.<br />
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&ldquo;It&rsquo;s important to us to provide a largely free,&nbsp;very affordable,&nbsp;service that is available to everyone affected by loss. Time, your geographic location in the world and relationship to the deceased or connection to their family and friends is not a barrier.<br />
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&quot;These pages are held for future generations to access and they provide a rich picture of who we are now, who we were in the past&nbsp;and all that we aspire to be&nbsp;in the future.&nbsp;An extremely valuable legacy to leave.&quot; Ms Skeet added.</div>
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